This invention relates generally to methods and apparatus for reducing eye fatigue, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for adjusting ambient lighting around various types of monitors, including LCD and CRT monitors, to reduce eye fatigue.
Liquid crystal displays (LCD) and cathode ray tube (CRT), displays well are known. (In this context as used herein, the terms “monitor” and “display” are considered synonymous. A “screen” is that part of the monitor or display upon which an image appears.) However, conditions in radiology reading rooms for reading these or other types of displays are not optimal for reducing eye fatigue or increasing accuracy of radiological studies. For example, many doctors turn off all lights to reduce screen glare on monitors. Studies indicate that radiologists experience eye fatigue under these conditions due to the increased contrast of the darkened room and a fully illuminated monitor screen (e.g., a CRT or LCD display screen). In addition, studies have also shown that the introduction of blue light into an environment results in dilation of the pupils of the eyes. When the pupils are dilated, the eyes are more focused and observational accuracy improves. Studies conducted with black-and-white images that were tinted using shade of blue to increase observational accuracy have found that radiologist found the blue-tinted images disturbing and out-of-sync with the black-and-white films they were trained to read.
Luminance variance between various types of images also contributes to eye fatigue. For example, radiologists studying breast mammograms must wait until their eyes have become acclimated before studying a CT or MR spine examination due to the greater average luminance of breast mammograms.
The use of separate lighting fixtures for ambient and environmental lighting is known. However, it can be inconvenient to adjust these separate fixtures for optimum lighting. Lighting attached to, or that attaches to a computer or display is also known, as is lighting that is powered by computer ports such as USB ports. However, known USB lighting is simple task lighting that does not adjust its intensity in accordance with information displayed on an associated computer screen. In addition, default display protocols (DDP) for medical images are known, but known protocols do not indicate or control optimal lighting parameters associated with examination types.